Welcome to the website for Charlecote Mill

Please show your support for Charlecote Mill against the threatened extension of navigation onto this stretch of the River Avon by viewing our new PROTECT CHARLECOTE MILL page. This threat is real; if you want this piece of living working history to survive for many more years to come, we need your support now.

Charlecote is not a museum occasionally grinding flour as many water and windmills now are. Charlecote is a piece of living working history and one of only a small handful of surviving commercial working watermills in the UK. Producing traditionally stoneground flours through French Burr Stones every weekday (when the water levels allow), the mill is a constant hive of activity but retains all the atmosphere and charm of a mill run in Victorian times. Most of the processes we use are as they would have been over 200 years ago and wherever possible grain is still sourced from local farms keeping our food miles to almost zero! Almost everything is done using the power of the two waterwheels, as it always was, and all of our products are hand finished and hand packed personally by Karl, the Miller. Mechanisation in a modern sense has never caught on at Charlecote; this truly is a place where time stands still and where quality and tradition blend perfectly to produce the unique Charlecote flours.

Water Levels at the Mill

Contrary to popular belief, lots of water is not what a water mill needs. With its 18 foot undershot waterwheels, the mill needs just the right balance. Too little and there is not enough power to turn the wheels. Too much and the wheels get "bogged down" with the paddles trying to lift the water that cannot drain away fast enough. Keep an eye on the local levels by looking at the Environment Agency Warwick Water gauge. 1.4 metres of water at Warwick is about perferct for the mill. Over 2 metres and the mill will probably not be able to run.